Grease in oil lines

Picked up a new to me mill at the weekend, seller proudly mentioned he had greased all the nipples to save me the trouble……yep he’s greased all the oil nipples to the ways. So whats the best thing to do, thought about pumping some diesel through to flush the grease out, followed by the correct way oil……..thoughts on a postcard ?

I go for Paraffin Alan. Or Turps.

Steve.

I think I would just give it a good dose of SAE 10 hydraulic oil. Noel

+1 on what 'e said. Oil will dissolve the grease. Might make the oil a bit thicker than normal (matching the previous owner!) but flush a bit through and it should be ok.

Hi what mill is it as some mill's use grease on some parts like a Bridgport uses a white grease for varidrive bitts.

David

Pump air through from an empty grease gun

light oil to dilute residual grease

Low pressure compressed air to blow the tubes through

It's annoying but only an inconvenience

Edited By Ady1 on 18/05/2022 08:49:49

Good morning, Alan,

How long had the seller owned the mill?

Was this the first time he had attended to its lubrication? Had he been using the mill with dry ways?

Or had he regularly lubricated the machine with grease?

Which is worse?!?!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Would you pump the oil through from a gun to try and force it out or leave it to dissolve and do its work slowly?

As do the Centec vertical heads.

That said, any oil galleries on older machines have a habit of blocking anyway. I found gunge in the internal gearbox oilways of the Centec and you can't get grease into those by mistake.

Edited By Dave Halford on 18/05/2022 10:23:40

It’s an Aciera F4 David, fortunately it came with a manual, including a lubrication schedule, which previous owner obviously didn’t bother reading !

And to answer Swarf Mostly’s question. Fortunately the ways seem to be in A1 condition, so no harm done either way.

We had that with the museum's lathe, some parts were dismantled and washed, but others were simply force lubricated with oil. Mike modified all of the common nipples by removing the springs and balls and produced a 90 degree internal chamfer so that an ordinary oil gun tip can fit well enough to not leak much when the oil is pumped in. There are about 7 nipples around the headstock and they now have plastic caps to keep them clean. The trouble is that the nipples are the same as grease ones and can fool some people.

Edited By old mart on 20/05/2022 21:18:33